Academy Awards Wrapup

For those of you who missed the Oscars last night, I'm gonna talk about everything I enjoyed and all the stuff that completely pissed me off. If you followed my live tweeting, some of this might sound familiar. Don't worry, I'll try and make it sound exciting, I promise.

And the winners are...

Best Picture - Argo

I'm really glad I made the last minute decision to switch to Argo for this one. I originally thought that Lincoln had they better shot, as it had way more nominations (especially in the key Best Director slot.) But I decided that I shouldn't let the fact that Ben Affleck got snubbed sway my decision here. Argo was the better movie, and had the momentum to take it. And I'm glad it did. Ben Affleck gave such a great, emotional speech. I wish he could have given a similar one for Best Director. I was also really glad that George Clooney took his Oscar and didn't give a speech. He knew it was Affleck's time to shine and let him do it on his own. Very classy.

Best Director - Ang Lee for Life of Pi

I think most people know about my general distaste for Life of Pi (and if you didn't know, you probably found out last night during my live-tweeting frenzy.) To me, there was very little to like about this film, the score was lack luster and unoriginal, the acting was horrendous (especially Irrfan Khan), and the script was absolutely laughable. The only thing that was really stunning about this movie was the visuals. Ang Lee really deserved this award purely for the fact that he turned a shitty script into a beautiful film. I still think he should have conceited his award to Ben Affleck (how awesome would that have been?) but I knew that would never happen.

Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln

Just like everyone else in the world, I knew this was going to happen months ago (even Seth MacFarlane knew it. He wrote a fucking song about how Bradley Cooper was gonna lose.) That being said, it was probably one of my favorite acceptance speeches. I loved his quipping with Meryl Streep coupled with his heartfelt thank you to Abraham Lincoln. He is a beautiful man, and I can't wait to see him win for a fourth time.

Best Actress - Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook

J-Law (do people call her that?) seriously deserved this award. After watching her nail it in Winter's Bone and then be pretty awesome in Hunger Games, I knew she was gonna do something excellent in the future. It didn't take too long, either. Her performance in SLP was really impressive, and I can't wait to see her do more. Also, last night, she looked phenomenal. Two years ago she looked like a high class hooker (you don't hear me complaining), but this year she looked like a genuine movie star. Her dress was adorable, and she just looked like the deserved to be there. I was really upset when she fell down on her way to accept her award (but glad to see Wolverine was there to help out!) Her acceptance speech was especially cute because it really showed her age. She just came across as a 22 year old that just achieved one of her biggest dreams. She was seriously giddy, but still managed to remember to wish Emmanuelle Riva a happy birthday! Bravo, Ms. Lawrence.

Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained

There were very few categories that I was actually glad to be wrong about. This was definitely one of them. Tarnatino films have never been a huge hit at the Oscars with only a handful of nominations...and even fewer wins. As someone who fucking loved Django Unchained and thought it was the best movie of the year (see my Top 20 of 2012 if you forgot) I really wanted to pick Waltz to win. But, instead of going with what I thought was best, I went with the history of Tarantino's film getting snubbed, as usual. I've never been so glad that I was wrong.

Best Supporting Actress - Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables

I honestly don't have any more to say about how fucking awesome Anne Hathaway was in this movie (and is in general.) I really wish she wasn't married. Grrrrrr.

Best Original Screenplay - Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained

Another of those few that I was glad to be wrong. Tarantino lost three years ago for, debateably, his greatest script ever. So, when he was up against the same guy that beat him for Inglourious Basterds, I forsaw a horrible recurrence of events. Thank god I was wrong. Tarantino totally deserved this. His characters are always so deep and well thought out. The dialogue is always so clever and eloquent. This man is a genius and I am so glad to have lived through his impeccable career. I can only hope he wins another one before he retires (and by 'retire' I mean 'dies in a directors chair...on set.')

Best Adapted Screenplay - Chris Terrio for Argo

I'm neither happy nor upset about this one. I think Argo was a better movie, and had a great script...but I thought Tony Kushner was the better choice. His script for Lincoln was really quite impressive. It's really hard to write a period script, especially when the subject matter is slightly bland. But Kushner put together a script that was so excellent that I felt completely immersed in the entire film. I knew it was gonna be between Kushner and Terrio, and I'm not surprised Terrio walked away with it.

Best Animated Feature - Brave

Seriously? This is how I think the Academy voters' thought process went: "Well...Pixar made a movie that wasn't awful...so...let's go with that one." I thought of the entire bunch of nominees, Brave was the 2nd worst. I say 2nd because Frankenweenie was a catastrophe. But that is besides the point. ParaNorman and Wreck-It Ralph were far superior films and either one deserved the award before Pixar's sub-par Brave.

Best Foreign Film - Amour

I think this is best summed up by my tweet from last night: "I still don't quite understand. Amour is an Austrian film with...French actors...and a French title...and in French?"

Best Cinematography - Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi

Alright, I understand that I said that Life of Pi had great visuals. And while cinematography is general associated with gorgeous films, but I think that Life of Pi's beauty came mostly from it's visual effects department and the excellent director at the helm. I'm not saying Miranda didn't do well...I just think that most of the other people nominated did better, especially Deakins. I really can't believe he hasn't won an Oscar yet. 10 nominations and no wins? COME ON! Skyfall was one of his best contributions (after Shawshank Redemption and Fargo) and he still lost. I no longer have faith in humanity.

Best Editing - William Goldenberg for Argo

Anyone who knows a lot about the Oscars knows that the Best Editing award is has the highest correlation with the Best Picture winner. So, how could I not pick Argo here when I picked it for Best Picture?

Best Production Design - Lincoln

I still think that Anna Karenina had the Best Production Design. But I really don't think anyone saw it. So I went with the next best thing: Lincoln. Awesome stuff right there.

Best Costume Design - Anna Karenina

This is pretty much people going: The dresses looked good in the trailers...so let's vote for that.

Best Hair and Makeup - Les Miserables

REALLY?! Last I checked The Hobbit had a bunch of fucking uniquely different dwarves that all had ridiculously awesome beards (last I checked, those were hair) and great prosthetics (ummm...makeup?!) HOW DID IT NOT WIN?! Seriously, the only other movie that even slightly deserved the win was Lincoln (which wasn't nominated.) So fuck you Academy. Don't you dare wait and just honor the trilogy at the end, like you did with the LOTR trilogy.

Best Original Score - Mychael Danna for Life of Pi

Alright, this is just bullshit. I thought that the Life of Pi score was really lackluster. I also thought the Lincoln score wasn't special, as Williams could have done much better...but it was still better than this piece of shit. Come on, please show some respect to the people that put out phenomenal scores that actually enhanced the viewing experience like Desplat, Newman or Marianelli!

Best Original Song - Adele for "Skyfall" from Skyfall

Remember when "Rolling in the Deep" was on the radio every 10 seconds and you wanted to gouge your eyes out? Well, I definitely do. I wanted to hunt down Adele and strangle her. Now, I can't get enough of her. She looked absolutely stunning in her dress on the red carpet, then wow-ed me with her excellent performance of "Skyfall" THEN gave a very humble and beautifully genuine acceptance speech. She was one of the best parts of the show last night. Everything she did just stood out to me.

Best Sound Mixing - Les Miserables

Two words: live singing.

Best Sound Editing - Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty

Wait...are you serious? A tie?! This is the sixth tie in Oscar history. So that's pretty damn impressive. Both films completely deserved it, and they were my top two choices, haha.

Best Visual Effects - Life of Pi

RICHARD PARKER! BAM! WIN!

Best Documentary Feature - Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short - Inocente

Best Animated Short - Paperman

Best Live Action Short - Curfew

Alright, now let me talk about a few of the non-reward related stuff that I noticed.

I guess I should start with the biggest part of the show: the host. I thought that Seth MacFarlane did a bang up job. He toed the line between offensive and upstanding quite well. I loved his opening dialogue with William Shatner, and his songs with Theron/Tatum and JGL/Radcliffe. MacFarlane had some great one liners throughout the show and never let his presence be forgotten (like so many hosts before him.) I'm quite surprised by how much I liked him as the host, and I hope he comes back for another awards show. He almost reminded me of a tamer (but still offensive) Ricky Gervais.

A few other things that stood out, in no particular order: Quvenzhane Wallis being adorable the whole night, especially after she was announced as Best Actress nominee. Then the complete opposite, with Joaquin Phoenix looking completely disgusted when he was announced as Best Actor nominee. Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman both running to Jennifer Lawrence's rescue when she fell. Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger. Robert Downey Jr being the only person to clap at the Rihanna/Chris Brown joke. Samantha Barks looking fucking smoking hot on the red carpet. Russell Crowe ruining the Les Miserables medley. People not being able to shut up about Chicago (seriously, that movie wasn't that great.) And there is probably a lot more that I'm forgetting.

So, what did you guys think of the Oscars? Think MacFarlane was too offensive/sexist (cuz if you did, then you must hate me)? What awards were you pleasantly surprised about and which ones made you want to punch a small child? Leave some comments and let me know. (Or you can just comment and tell me how much my live tweeting irritated the fuck out of you.)